Has anyone experienced that changing the test from points only to initial equity would change the outcome of a test and how? I remember reading somewhere that that you should make sure that if you ran points only test you should make sure that the "securities show similar levels of volatility".I dont see how this should affect the results; either its profitable or not. I'm not really interested if it made a million dollars or not because my profit would be determined by share size and amount of risk that I decide to take at the point of the trade. I usually run my test points only, to see if the system is profitable;I figured if it was profitable I would handle share size according to capitol and money management rules when I entered.

Pyradius, Thanks for your reply.I have been doing some test since my post and I just keep on getting a bit more confused I was doing most of my test on points only because I play the mini russell and the mini nasdaq and I figured that this would be a much better way of testing even for stocks.My reasoning was that if the system was profitable I could translate the points into dollar amount by multiplying per share size. Well I did some test with a simple system I put together just for this and the only conclusion I could derived from points versus trade equity was that if I want to make a system profitable all I have to the is change from points only to equity.Now I have more questions than before. The system I put together follows:Ran test on nasdaq 100;long only test,and close all positions on last bar. {BUY:=DAYOFWEEK()=1; BUY;} {SELL:=DAYOFWEEK()=2; SELL;} Under "system testing option"..go to the "more" tab..and select the" trade execution' tab .Choose open for buy price and close for sell price I first ran the test points only test no stops built into the system or on the testing wizard.Test results were about 50% profitable other 50% non profitable. Trade equity test using 1 share and $100,000 initial equity or any number high enough to take any positions that come up.with the rest of the parameters same as above. Test results 100% profitable. How should I interpret this? Thanks in advance.

Hi again, I ran the same test and I believe I know why you have different results. You were earning interest on the equity test and not on the points only test. Under the "More" section, if you put values of 0 in place of Interest/Money Market, I believe you will find the results should match.